The transportation between Wroclaw and Cracow is free of charge after showing the ticket for “Enemy of the People” performance. In case of resignation, please return tickets according to the Ticket Return Policy: http://dialogfestival.pl/en/ticket-return-rules/.

Ziemilski’s Jeden gest is a story of the every day life of deaf people and their existence among those who use the sign language and those who use the spoken language. The four protagonists differ in terms of their age and degree of hearing impairment. Although their experiences are often similar, “this is not an integrating production”, as the director notes. The production introduces the audience into the varied world of sign languages; it demonstrates the richness and limitations of communication, the beauty and performativity of the signs used by the hard of hearing. Thus Jeden gest is, as Ziemilski says, a production about “signing, about the world of the sign language, which is not the same as the world of French, German or Polish. It is a world that functions differently, that has a different sensuality. We learn something new. I think that very few people with no hearing impairments have had an opportunity to take such a close look at those who sign. It is said to be inappropriate – so here it is very much appropriate”. At the same time Jeden gest is a story about communication and about why we are unable to communicate.

“We can learn a lot from Wojtek Ziemilski’s Jeden gest. About the world of the hard of hearing and various signing systems. It is a great subject for a play. About an invisible minority and about the language. A subject for a theatre that wants to be close to life, because it is also a play about people, about the four protagonists with their stories, victories and defeats, dreams and disappointments.”

Piotr Morawski, dwutygodnik.com

“Ziemilski and the actors create an aesthetically refined and dramatically coherent form in which actors’ monologues are mixed with interesting directorial ideas. […] What emerges as a result is a rather fascinating set of gestures which become not only a means of communication but also a fascinating choreography.”

Wojtek Ziemilski (1978) – Polish theatre director and visual artist. Born in California, for a long time he lived in Portugal, where he completed a course in theatre directing at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and directed a production of Hamlet Light. His projects after returning to Poland included Mała narracja [Little Narrative] – a performance in which he was coming to terms with the story of his grandfather Wojciech Dzieduszycki. Ziemilski experiments with form; his productions combine documentary theatre, performance, choreography and visual arts. He lectures in theatrical experiments e.g. at the Theatre Institute, TR Warszawa and the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków. His productions have been shown at the Ruhrtriennale in Essen, Fringe Festival in Edinburgh and Bazaar Festival in Prague. In 2015 he was nominated for the Passport Award of the Polityka weekly.

ZIEMILSKI ON THEATRE:
“When I go to the theatre, to a place that is supposed to be different, that has laboratory conditions and can study the world, I expect to see in this space something that is an experiment, an event. And what will emerge as a result is not supposed to happen only on stage but also – above all! – within me as a spectator. That I, by experiencing this, experience something that places me elsewhere in the reality. […] It’s not that a theatrical performance has to be a religious experience for me. It does not have to be great, but evidently should change something. Make the spectators feel. It is enough for me to feel as if I were getting to know someone or something new. And theatre has excellent conditions to do just that.”
“Eksperyment dzieje się w głowie” [An experiment takes place inside the head”], Agnieszka Kobroń, an interview with Wojtek Ziemilski, Afisz teatralny